driftfleet | It's Party Time [ Open ]

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It's Party Time [ Open ]

Who: Jim Kirk & You!
Broadcast: Nope
Action: Yes, Planet-side @ Alloy Lake
When: Sometime in the evening

While it wasn't broadcasted, between how many people were told and the fact it wasn't exactly a private affair on a very public beach, anyone was welcome to come to this little shindig. Kirk's feelings were mostly that they all could use a break and a chance to relax together as friends, family, teammates, or any other word you chose to assign to the relationships you had on the Fleet. It was a nice break from working in projects too. It was nice to have something to occupy yourself in a creative and useful way, but it was always a good idea to take a break and refresh the brain now and then.

Which was how he came to the idea of a party on Alloy Lake.

He scouted a scrap of land near the water to set up on - beach towels, a cooler with drinks, a mocked up grill to cook some food. He went out later in the afternoon to start with more than enough light to enjoy some swimming, though it would be dark soon enough for certain members to join without being uncomfortable. At which point, a bonfire was built. What? A lack of sunlight is never a reason to stop partying! Especially not with such good company.

_{[ ooc: It's a party on the beach! Make your own starters and have some fun! There's drinks - alcoholic and non - food, a couple of games or make your own, a bonfire later in the night with of course means some kind of smore, swimming, and more. In terms of invite, you can assume you were directly told by Kirk, or told by someone else, or the grapevine. It's open to all, so don't worry to much about it. Have fun! ]}

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[Once back in the water, Taako takes a dive and does a lazy figure eight in the depths. The water isn't as deep as it could be, but it's enough. It's quiet under here, the minerals in the water not exactly conducive for fish that he recognizes. He heard the splash from up above and starts to climb, emerging from the deep underneath Lup.

He bumps his nose up against her and stops as best he can, so she can climb back on if she likes.]

[She does like, as a matter of fact, and she makes it known with a lighter pat on his nose as she swims around to grab his fin. He probably has no idea what this means to her, and she's fine with that, since her reactions to many of the things that he does - kind or otherwise - tend to bother him. She can't help it, most times. She knows how he is, and how he's been in more recent years. Taako doesn't generally do favours for just anyone. He might not even realize what he's doing with this, but like many of their shared moments since their arrival here, it gives her hope that things are getting better, bit by bit. It's almost like she's getting her brother back.

Since they're underwater and talking is out, she sends him a quick Message. Whales can't cast, but he can still think if he wants to respond.]

You take the lead, boss. Wanna explore a bit?

[Underwater and with only a whale's brain, the logical conclusion for him is "yes" when it comes to exploring. But he doesn't have a pod and the closest is the face-twin clinging to his fin. He should feel less at ease with that, but oh well. It's easier to sink into the easy mindset a whale has and go with the flow.

Taako rolls in the water and then starts to dive, aiming for the bottom of the lake where there's bound to be random scrap and piles of things to look through. He meanders his way deeper, eventually coming upon the expected formations of junk. The metal is nearly fused together, making stalagmites and pillars of algae and rust covered monuments.]

[Lup leans over his back to watch as the scenery sails by. It's getting darker and darker as they swim deeper, so she begins casting Dancing Lights as far ahead of them as the range allows, recasting every few seconds to light their path. Taako probably has some kind of whale sonar, but she wants to be able to check out what lies beneath.

Most of it isn't that interesting, but some of the remnants of what used to exist here is pretty cool. Looks like the people who cleaned this place didn't get everything, though from what she's heard this is just a fraction of what used to be beneath the surface. It's pretty cool to see how nature has more or less reclaimed the space from all the garbage.]

[He swims through the formations, some of them fragments of ship hulls stripped of most of it useful parts. Fish that have taken refuge in these shelters scatter as they approach, the Dancing Lights glinting off multicolored scales. Taako takes a slow roll between two towers of junk covered in algae. As he slides through, he sees something crawling along the left tower, extending long tentacles through the scrap metal.

In this his whale brain and his elf brain are in sync. He pulls around and stops, watching as the creature camoflauges.

Octopus!!!]

[She sees it almost at the same moment as he does, catching sight of a limb as it fades into the terrain. She squints, her vision still not great now that it's phased, so she gestures with her hand to relocate the Dancing Lights to give them a better view of the area where it had vanished, and taps Taako's back, leaning forward.

Get closer, I'll see if I can get a shot off.

It'll be tricky if they want to capture it without damaging the tentacles too much, but so, so worth it.]

[Taako doesn't have to be told, he's already swimming closer, inching in to where he last saw the octopus. Killer whales are named that for a reason though, and when he sees movement, he snaps at it. Just a fish, but hey - tasty.

Wait no, raw. Raw not sashimi fish. Gross, gross, gross.

The movement causes the octopus to flee, however, and it shoots up in the water, trying to get away. Unfortunately, its path takes it right in front of Lup.]

[Well, isn't that just perfect for her? It's a simple matter to reach out with both hands, palms glowing brightly with a fierce red energy of a spell, and grasp at the creature's big head as it tries to swerve around her. Fire is less effective in water, which means it won't completely immolate the damn thing, but heat works just fine with direct contact, and the damage is enough to shock the octopus out of escaping, legs flailing wildly in pain. If she could smell underwater it would probably reek like a fishery, and with a satisfied bubble of a laugh she kicks it back towards Taako's maw.

How about fried calamari instead?]

[He really, really has to use every ounce of will not to just eat and swallow that octopus. But for once, he's so glad that Lup is here because it continues his trend of being helped and/or saved by competent women. Taako sees the movement out of the corner of his eye and snaps his head around, jaws clamping down once the octopus is in his mouth.

Which? IS NOT A GOOD FEELING.

The octopus is still alive, shocked as it is, and its tentacles grip his teeth and cling to his tongue. Taako whips his head to the side and starts shaking his body, wrestling with the octopus trying to pry its way out of his jaws.]

[oh my gods what is he doing

Lup snorts, hands lifting to cover her mouth, but she can't help it; more bubbles burst between her lips as she starts laughing, watching him flail about. She'd hoped that he would catch it, but this... it's a bit much.

She pushes off his back and swims around to face him directly, reaching out to press her hands to his nose as he jerks it about.]

Stop, stop! You dingus, hold still so you don't bite my hand off, I'll get it.

[There's a couple of wriggling tentacles sticking out of his mouth, but there's no way she's reaching for them until he chills. Those are some big teeth he's packing.]

[Trying not to choke and die because this octopus can't decide if it wants to murder him or escape, that's what he's doing.

The sensation of suckers trying to rip your skin off from the inside is wholly unpleasant and Taako thrashes, clamping down harder in protest until Lup swims around the front. With her hands pressed to his nose, he wriggles, but calms. The octopus on the other hand? Starts wriggling harder, suckers attaching to his lips and pulling to try to get out. Whatever Lup is going to do, she better do it soon or Taako might end up chewing this thing to death just to stop from dying himself.]

[She's still laughing as she moves closer, grabbing the octopus by one tentacle to tug herself in where it's head is pressed between the whale jaws. She whispers a bubble in its direction, magic weaving in her words, and immediately the creature goes limp, tentacles sliding off of Taako's skin. Lup gives him another pat, gesturing for him to open up again so she can pull it out.

It is quite literally the most overkill of overkills for one dumb giant octopus, but it's the fastest way to get it away from Taako's flailing before he ruins their material components. She really wants those tentacles. It's not like there's a plethora of danger around this planet, anyway.]

[There's a bubble from her mouth and an overwhelming sense of power, and the octopus goes limp. Its suckers peel off from inside Taako's mouth and tongue, and for a second a thrill of fear runs through him as his mind catches up to what just happened. He knew she had access to some high level spells, but that one? It's a bit terrifying to think that she has access to a spell like that.

Thankfully? Whale brain is a lot simpler than his wizard one and it's just happy that the octopus is no longer trying to French kiss him to death. He opens his mouth and spits the octopus at Lup, rolling to the side to get away from it.]

[She might be able to excuse it away later - it's just an octopus, after all, can't have that much life to drain away - but Taako's lack of reaction makes any concern she might have had to vanish from her mind. She does make a mental note to maybe go through her spellbook and see if she'd stolen any more of Barry's lower level spells, though. Necromancy isn't her style - lich stuff notwithstanding - but it was made for this type of situation.

Regardless, the octopus issue's resolved, so she wraps it up around itself as best as she can and tucks it under her arm, gesturing around and glancing at Taako before swimming over to her spot on his back again. Keep going, or was octodoom enough for him?]

[His whale brain is just glad that he's no longer in danger of suffocating to death. His elf brain is also glad for this, but it's also turning over the spell he just felt vibrating through his skull. She'd used it to help him though so he can't really complain so much as just be wary for the future. It has quite the build-up so at the very least, he knows he has a bare minimum of time to get away if necessary.

With the octopus vanquished and Lup back on his back, he continues his rolling dive away from the tower. There are a lot of other things they can search for, but the spell components are the most important. Could they find another one maybe? Does he really want to wrestle another freaking octopus?

He corrects his dive and starts climbing. Whales can stay under for a long time, but they're still mammals. He needs a breath of air after all that struggling.]

[Lup holds on tightly as they rise, both to Taako's fin and to the octopus. With all eight limbs intact, they could get a fair number of casts out of this one, and if they dry it out properly it'll last a good long time, too. There's bound to be plenty of other interesting things to be found under the surface, and Taako's got this shape for a while yet before Polymorph wears off. If she hadn't just blown her 9th level slot she'd offer to trade with him once it's finished, but she didn't prep the lower level version today. Oh well, this is plenty for her.]

What's the plan? Do you want to go back?

[As he rises to the surface, he concentrates on forming a single word in his mind. It isn't easy to use speech, even telepathic speech, when your mind isn't made for Common or Elvish or anything other than animal chitters and whale song. But while the silence stretches between them, he manages to get a single word out to her just before they get to the surface.]

Air.

[He breaches and lets out a relieved breath from his blowhole, spewing a light spray of water into the air. He coasts along the surface until he goes beyond the towers of junk they'd just explored. He goes a little further and then slaps his tail against the water.]

Down?

[She lifts the octopus over her head as a makeshift umbrella to spare herself from the spray of his blowhole, with mixed results, before giving his back another pat.]

Down! Let's see if we can find something with less tentacles and more fun.

[In retrospect maybe it would have been more helpful to cast Water Breathing on him when she'd used it on herself, but oh well. The lake isn't so deep that he can't make it back up in time when he needs to.]

[At her response, he arcs his back and dives. The water grows dark around them again as he heads toward the bottom where any of the interesting looking creatures or leftover salvage might be. As they go, they pass by schools of brightly colored fish and sea grass covered mounds that gradually begin to grow in height the deeper they swim.

He's counting on her to cast Dancing Lights again as the light gets dimmer down here. He can make out hulking shapes, skeletons of old ships and tall towers of trash. It'd be beautiful and haunting if it wasn't actually trash. It's much of the same here for a long stint - colored fish, empty husks, sea grass, weird looking creatures with two heads, things unrecognizable to him - and then he notices several undulating lights deeper below them swimming lazily along undisturbed by his giant shape passing overhead.]

[Dancing Lights peppers their path downwards, revealing more and more of the scenery, mostly scraps and vessels or creatures of little interest or use to them. She can't help but be reminded of their journey to the lower levels of the world with the broken civilization, and all the robots, nearly a century ago. Taako doesn't remember, of course, but that had been such a turning point for all of them. The secrets those depths had revealed... she can't help wondering what else people might think to bury under the deep waters.

The bobbing lights beneath them doesn't catch her attention immediately - she'd caught them in her peripheral as just a reflection of her own - but Taako's movement makes her look twice, and with a gesture she sends her cantrip downwards to light it up. The two hover next to one another for a long moment, the magic orb revealing some kind of bioluminescent bob on a string- until abruptly a pair of jaws rise up out of the dark and clamp down around the Dancing Light with surprising quickness. It makes Lup jerk backwards, twisting her wrist to set the remaining lights spinning around the creature just out of range.]

What the hell was that?

[Whoa, holy shit. Taako tilts slightly so he can see the display a little better and is equally as surprised when jaws snap up out of the gloom. It's ugly as sin with rows of jagged teeth poking up over its top lip. Giant, milky eyes are staring out into the darkness and the light bob is still flicking in front of it. The Dancing Lights show mottled gray skin, the color blending into that of the water.

That's a nasty looking predator and it's nearly as big as Taako himself. It turns its head toward the Dancing Lights, snapping at them in turn, then turns its head upwards toward them.

....Well fuck.]

[......ah.

Should've saved that spell, maybe.

Lup gives Taako's back a frantic couple of pats, shifting position so she can face backwards instead of front.]

Go, go! Lead it around, but keep your distance! I've got your back.

[It looks hefty and dangerous, and she doesn't want Taako anywhere near those big teeth, but they've definitely faced more dangerous creatures than this. That giant purple worm comes to mind. She weaves her hand through the water and clenches down into a fist, catching liquid and silt stirred up by the creature's movement, and uses it to cast Storm Sphere around the sea monster, trapping it momentarily and searing its back with a bolt of lightning. It won't hold it for long, but it ought to give Taako enough time to get up to speed.]

[He doesn't need to be told to move - when he sees the head swivel up their way, he's already flipping his tail to take a sharp turn away. He can feel a spell form behind him and fire off, but he's ignoring everything in favor of escape. He really hopes that Lup is holding on because he's going to try and get to top speed to put as much distance between them and the creature as possible.

Down below the sea creature thrashes inside the sphere, smashing against the sides as lightning scores its back. The Sphere doesn't last long though and with pain in its hide, the giant fish puts on a burst of speed and lunges for them from the depths, jaws open.]

[Okay, cool, that just made it angry. It's not like she'd expected it to drop dead, but she'd sort of hoped it would at least have second thoughts about chasing them.

That suits her just fine, though; she bares her teeth right back at it, returning its challenging snarl in kind. It's not intimidated yet, but she'll make sure it regrets this before day's end.

It hadn't much liked the lightning, but she lacks the components to fire off a more specific bolt, so instead she points her spoon downwards and casts Scorching Ray. Her aim isn't helped any by the fact that Taako's bouncing her around with every stroke of his tail; one of the blasts bounces harmlessly off its armored hide, another sheers through the string of flesh keeping the glowing orb attached without causing much damage, but the third goes where she'd intended it to go- right down the monster's throat. And that makes it pause, pace slowing down as it thrashes in anger and pain, and they've successfully fended it off for another round.

She laughs noiselessly, punching her spoon-wielding hand above her head. This is fun.]

[How she can be enjoying herself when a fanged horror beast is chasing them through the water is beyond him. Taako can't cast magic so he's basically defenseless right now, which means his only recourse is to flee. His teeth are sharp, but nowhere near as big as that thing's teeth and he is not going to test them to find out who wins.

Another spell fires off behind him and Taako veers around a tower of trash, sending the fish swimming around it into a panic. They flee and Taako zips on by.

The fish thrashes below, the orb cut from its face, and disappears into the depths again. Without the light, it's hard to see where it is, but a flurry of fish fleeing toward the surface might give her a good idea. It's still chasing them, but slower and from behind and below now.]

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